Shopping in Mexico: the tianguis
The Aztecs called it tianquiztli, Nahuatl for the marketplace". Modern Mexicans refer to it as the tianguis, mercado sobre ruedas ("market on wheels" - a term used mostly in Mexico City...
read more
Dancing with the Maya: una fiestita in Copoya
You would think that by now, well into my third year of living in Chiapas, I would have learned that familiar U.S. customs-especially ones which make me feel as though I have slipped into a comfortable...
read more
Midnight on the Isthmus, returning home from Oaxaca
After an exciting week visiting a close friend, meeting new ones, and immersing myself fully in the rich cultural experience that is Oaxaca, I was headed home to celebrate Christmas with my family and ...
read more
Vistas de Copoya, Chiapas
The day starts early here in Copoya. Hours before a bright pink sun rises over the eastern mountain, the roosters, pigs, and braying burros compete noisily with horn blowing little colect...
read more
Shawls for all seasons (rebozos for all reasons)
We sit crushed together, moist and miserable, in the back of the battered old VW van as we do every day about this time. Interesting odors assail our noses. We would rather not know what it is we are s...
read more
Mexican pigeons do not fly in a straight line!
It all started when I took Molly to one of the downtown parks here in Morelia, a park crammed with pretty flowers, spraying fountains and Jacarandas in full bloom. We soon found ourselves enjoying a qu...
read more
Molly's tamales!
"Morelia is a taco town", Molly remarked over morning coffee a few months ago. I didn't say anything because I knew her remark wasn't meant to be critical. It's just that after living in Morelia for a ...
read more
Lucky thing
Thirty minutes away from the Guadalajara airport, but seemingly hundreds of years distant in time, in Lake Chapala sits the island of Mezcala whose ruins date from the early 19th century. The cobbled r...
read more
Honor, vengeance and machismo
Bitter are the fruits they eat in Michoacán, black oval fruits the size of an olive, borne in the summer on the capelin tree. Bitter is the story told to me in a mountain pueblo in the northeast corne...
read more
The cow killers
Luis Dumois' article about Volcán Paricutín released a few vivid memories of my teenage years in Mexico. In 1948 I was incredibly lucky to visit the volcano of Paricutín in its full and frighte...
read more
Learning to shop in the village
John's point wasn't, I sensed, simply a lesson in village economics.
When we moved to Mexico in 1976, I didn't regret leaving behind the Alpha Beta Supermarket, the 7-11 quick-stop, or Newport Mall. I...
read more
Temezcal y Xun - the sweatlodge
San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, where I chose to live five years ago, is a city time almost forgot. Situated in the highland valley of Jovel at an elevation of 2,100 meters, it's a city mingling f...
read more
Cohetes, a Mexican tradition
Early one morning in late July, after being awakened by the infernal POP POP POP of today’s Mexican alarm clock, I arose reluctantly from the warmth of my bed, determined to find the true story of ...
read more
The Insider's Guide: Mexico's Lake Chapala and Ajijic by Teresa A. Kendrick
I'm filled with admiration and respect for The Insider's Guide. Its 368 pages are so complete and comprehensive and so well thought out and so well organized. Teresa Kendrick and her colleagues have done a wonderful job of providing and packaging a full authoritative range of information, not only for long and short-term residents of the Lake Chapala area but also for those many people who seem to be contemplating coming here either to live as permanent retiree-residents or as snowbirds.
read more
"Isabel's Enigma"
"Isabel's Enigma"
© 2003 T. Adams
I
n June I saw the first indications of rain. Clouds from the northeast began building in the late afterno...
read more
"The Passion Fruit Vine"
A
fter nine years in Jalisco, my infatuation with the Mexico that visitors experience had long since become the Mexico where I worked for a living-where I filed taxes, met deadlines and had the o...
read more
Gracias Y Adios
Dear Readers,
When "Tales From the Maracuyá" first appeared as a Mexico Connect column in July 2003, I hoped to chronicle an extraordinary year in Mexico with an extraordinary friend. My ...
read more
Getting Used To Things In Mexico
Traveling to Mexico is like having a fling, a stunning romance, a love affair so intense that everything becomes a romantic vision. Senses are heightened, feelings revive, and travelers find themselves...
read more
"On The Road To The Cofradia"
B
y the end of June, the villages around the Lake were cool and green and deserted, the time of year everyone waited for. Influenced by tourism, we knew that visitors would begin returning in Nov...
read more
"A Foreigners Tale"
"My father thought Mexico was the best place on earth," said Isabel as she heaved a huge pot for steaming
tamales onto the stove in her kitchen. "But he always felt like a Spaniard. Always like ...
read more
The Wonder Of Living In Mexico
By Janet Stanley © 2001
"At the moment you are most in awe of all there is
about life that you don't understand, you are closer
to understanding it all than at any o...
read more
Posadas, Pastorelas And Nacimientos
Las Posadas are fiestas that begin on the 16th and end on the 24th of December. In Mexico, during this period, there are many Posadas every evening.
read moreA Day At Labná
For the thousandth time, the automobile was stuck in the road. Damn! Things were much worse than we'd imagined. I opened the car door and stepped down to see how to get us out from the hole in which we...
read more
Zuno House Is Doubly "Historic" - Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
It's an historic house in its own right but was designed to teach Mexican history. So it's doubly "historic."
The person who said modern artists try to hide their meanings was wrong. This house was...
read more
Prodeur - Preserving The Heritage
Visitors - even those who come regularly - will always find something they haven't seen before by taking long strolls in Guadalajara's mansion area. Hungry? That's where the best restaurants are.
...
read more
